Tales from Beta Kindergarten III: Maturation
by Ajora
Summary: It's been over four thousand years since the Gem War ended earlier than expected. It is, perhaps, too long a time with the same group of gems for Jasper's peace of mind.
1. Confessions

This follows about 4500 years after the corruption in part I. Reading part I is helpful to understand the timeline divergence but not required. Definitely read part II, though.

* * *

Once it was confirmed that the green gem creature had made them and her form was corrupted, a slow change came over the gems. There had always been those who sought out the green gem's company, but now it seemed that everyone had something they wanted to share with her regardless of her capacity to comprehend anything. Jasper had to set down rules about when and where it was okay to accost the corrupted gem, and drew a hard line on the visitations once Mother started looking overwhelmed. If she was in her alcove or next to Jasper, she was off limits. If she sought out other gems, they weren't allowed to vent to her. They could only do so if she was perched on the hatch of that one strange injector that had its innards pulled out, and they had to leave her alone if she decided to wander off. If some other gem was already occupied with her, the visitor had to keep their distance until she was free. And so on. There were complaints and arguments, but Jasper would have none of it.

Stoneshaper visited her in the mornings, in that time when the sky lightens just before the sun peeks above the horizon. The tiger's eye had to work a little more to get up to the top of the injector's hatch, but she never complained. She usually showed off her work, which ranged from making stone tools to delicate artwork. Sometimes she might even demonstrate. "Isn't this razor amazing?" she asked one day, holding up a prismatic obsidian blade for the corrupted gem to get a good look. "And all you do is shape the core—this thing in my lap—and you can knock off as many as you want with just the right pressure and tools. Here, lemme show you." Stoneshaper never expected much of a response, and she didn't think Mother understood anything, but it was nice to have someone to share things with.

Aster came once or twice, when the other gems were otherwise occupied, and sat at Mother's side in silence until she could finally find the words. "I can't see colors," she confessed at last. "Dandelion says it's no big deal, but I can't help but feel like I'm missing so much." During her last visit, she apologized for taking up Mother's time, for there were surely other gems with bigger problems. Mother only tilted her head in response and blinked. Aster wasn't sure how to interpret that.

Carnelian only visited right after socializing with Amethyst, and her words ran together as she rambled excitedly about the Crystal Gems and horsing around with Amethyst. And she fused once! With Amethyst! And it was amazing and Mom was the first one she told so far. She never reported joining the monster hunts. Towards the end of her visits, she always tried to hug Mom before running off. Carefully, of course, and only if she looked comfortable with it.

Early on, Egret attempted to bond with her. Her hand fell on her absurdly long neck as her chat devolved into bitter recrimination. "Why did you create us like this? Deformed? Fern doesn't even have legs and she has to shapeshift to get anywhere. Wren's back is so twisted that humans stare at her. My neck… Why?" She didn't know how much Mother understood, or whether it was her words or her tone that sent Mother running off into her alcove. She didn't try again.

Twig only vented when Jasper wasn't around to hear, usually about Jasper expecting her to handle things when she just wanted to relax and work on her designs. "I can't be in charge! I don't _want_ to be in charge." Honestly, she wanted to be an irresponsible little brat half the time, but noooo. Mother put up with it gamely, which she appreciated. And, rarely, it was more serious. "Mom, I think something's wrong with Jasper," she whispered one night. "I mean, she's always pretty blunt and that's normal, but… I dunno. She's been getting meaner. She _yelled_ at _Sage!_ She never yells at Sage! She's probably sick of us. _I'm_ sick of us, and I'm only her second in command." Mother didn't say anything, but just having someone to work things out to helped.

Jasper never visited Mother while she was perched on that injector. "You don't need my problems," she said once, though she was unsure of why she was explaining anything to a corrupted gem. Maybe a little part of her thought that something might get through the corruption to the gem Mother used to be. "Everyone else dumps their crap on you." Whatever their relationship was, it wasn't about words. Not really. It had always been enough just to sit with each other in quiet companionship. Words just muddied things up.


	2. Rupture

Warning for mention of bullying and physical and emotional abuse.

* * *

According to the calendar of the pyramid-builders to the south, it was ten baktun, three katun, sixteen tun, and the rest Jasper didn't care enough to recall. Well over twenty-eight hundred years after the agreement at Alliance Rock. In that time, several different clans of humans moved from brush shelters and pit houses to buildings of masonry and adobe. Trade brought exotic scarlet feathers and hematite mirrors from the south, shells from the west, and with each trade came a host of new ideas.

With tensions mounting from the boredom of thousands of years together, in-fighting became more frequent. In her exasperation, Jasper demanded that everyone pitch in to build something. First came the watchtower, built in the new style of masonry, adobe, and wooden support beams. The great house was rebuilt with the glass from the injectors repurposed to serve as windows. They built a ball court a few hundred years back, with masonry walls built almost as tall as Jasper, and the formalized ball games served as a much-needed stress release for a while. Now, after Stoneshaper and Mason returned from the southern trading center that grew into a city, they were building their own village.

The plans called for the building of ninety apartments along the crest of the hill their Kindergarten was carved out of, several fire pits and ovens, lots for Sage's garden and Jasper's growing hoard of cacti, a room for Mother, and extra storerooms. For the most part, everyone had already chosen which apartment would be theirs. Everyone except Bear.

 _We really ought to call her Lichen_ , someone had said during the planning. _She's about as useful_.

Jasper had cut the speaker off with a glare, but it was only a symptom of a greater problem: Bear's sense of time was much slower than everyone else's, which made her a target for harassment. When Jasper asked the Crystal Gems' emissary about it, Pearl told her that some gems of great age lithify—growing closer to the timekeeping of stone than of organics, until they could no longer respond at all. Why such a thing would happen to a gem of Bear's youth was a mystery, and one that Pearl didn't seem to want to comment on.

"You have to decide," Jasper told the other jasper one day, when everyone else was busy building and she had the time to spare to talk to Bear. She had to slow down, disconnect from the pace of organic things, in order to be understood. "Or I'll stick you next to me."

Bear peered at her as if she didn't quite see her. The gem in her forehead glinted in the light coming in from one of the windows, but otherwise she might have been a statue. "It's better for me in here," Bear said at last. Jasper was faintly aware that the night had come and gone by the time Bear finished speaking.

"You'll be safer in your own place."

There was something of a flinch in Bear's expression, which made Jasper's harden. "The triplets attacked you again?"

Bear didn't say anything, but the way her gaze shifted to the ground told her everything. Jasper's cheek ticked from the tension of her tightly-clenched teeth; it took everything she had to keep from storming out and laying into the triplets.

"It's all right," Bear offered, her voice almost soothing. "I know they're just playing around."

If Jasper hadn't happened across the jasper triplets physically assaulting Bear several times and at one point seen them kick her disembodied gem around, she might have been swayed. Now, with the morning light illuminating the discoloration in the red and brown stripes of Bear's form, fury burned hot in her gem. "No. I've told them a thousand times to knock it off."

Without apology or so much of a look back, Jasper jerked herself back to organic time and stalked out of the great house in search of the triplets. She was aware, vaguely, of Twig running up to her side.

"Jasper! Hey! What are you—"

With a growl of impatience and frustration, Jasper stopped and spun to face Twig. Her voice was nearly a roar. " _Where are the triplets?_ "

A sudden stillness washed over the building team as everyone with the ability to hear turned to stare at her. Heads lowered as her glare swept across the building team, and none of them looked like any of the triplets. The triplets were slacking off again. Jasper's lip curled into a sneer and—

"Off gambling, probably," Twig shrugged and feigned nonchalance. "You might wanna breathe a little before you start on them."

To her credit, Twig didn't react when Jasper's glare turned on her. "Want to try that again?"

"Sure." Twig straightened and her hands settled on her hips, and everything about her looked like she was ready to take whatever punishment Jasper wanted to dish out. "You've been snapping at _everyone_ lately. Everyone's _scared_ of you now. What's going on?"

Jasper's brow furled; her own issues were the last thing she wanted to deal with right now. "Bear has bruises again."

Twig's confrontational posture eased. "Idiots. Want me to haul them out for you?"

Jasper deflated a little. Half the reason Twig worked so well as her second-in-command was because she tried to be a neutral party. Other gems trusted her because of it. If she sacrificed that veneer of neutrality, if she demonstrated that Twig was willing to relent to her demands, she risked losing the trust Twig had carefully cultivated among the more discontent. That, in turn, would make Twig's job that much more difficult. Ugh. _Politics_.

"No," she grunted at last, in a tone that was barely above a whisper. "I'll handle it."

A slight smile tugged at the corners of Twig's lips, though she made a visible effort at suppressing it. "Well, _maybe_ a little crow might have mentioned that they went behind the ball court to play games with Dicer's crew."

For her part, Jasper tried not to glower too much in disgust. The largest carnelian, Dicer, found her calling in games of chance, which evolved over time into full-fledged gambling. Her games and her fondness for gossip drew the more discontent to her, which Jasper suspected was undermining her authority. But, so long as no one got hurt, Jasper had allowed it to continue.

Maybe it was time to remind them who was in charge, after all.

Jasper muttered her thanks and swept out of the construction site. She paused briefly to entertain the notion of bringing some backup with her, but dismissed it on the grounds that rattling the band of idiots was a job best done alone.

She had to think to keep quiet as she stalked towards the oval walls of the ball court. Knocking heads only worked for so long, but maybe a human solution would do more good than her past threats. Despite their tendency to watch from the sidelines and keep to themselves, jaspers were still social gems. Exile was probably the most devastating of options available to her.

When she arrived at the western side of the ball court, she found the triplets, Dicer, one of the tiger's eyes, and a couple of other carnelians were sitting in a loose circle around the woven mat of yucca fibers that was the game board. Their attentions were so fixed on the carved antler dice that they didn't see her until her shadow fell on them.

Dicer's eyes met hers, as if in challenge. Perhaps more than anything, Jasper wished the carnelian would get annoyed enough to fight her openly. It was a simple solution with a simple outcome in her favor. But _that_ would depend on Dicer misjudging her just once, and Dicer wasn't one to take that big a risk. If Jasper did what she desperately wanted to do and smacked Dicer just once, she'd lose this weird, silent power struggle. _Politics_.

Without breaking eye contact with Dicer and conceding defeat, Jasper spoke. "Dicer, break this game up _right now_ and go back to work. All of you except the triplets. Triplets: watchtower."

There was a spattering of complains, but the tiger's eye and other carnelians took their wagers and skulked away. One of the triplets' voice raised in complaint. "But Jasper, it's just a little break—"

" _ **Now.**_ "

The triplets rose as one and shuffled away, unwilling to stoke her ire more than they already had.

With her fellow players gone, Dicer conceded and broke eye contact to gather her dice and multicolored counter stones into a beaded leather pouch. The mat she brushed off and tucked under her arm. "We didn't know how long you'd be talking to that useless lump," Dicer said, a hint of a pout coloring her voice.

Jasper could argue that Bear wasn't useless, that she had valuable insight for those who were willing to slow down to listen to her, but it was an argument thousands of years old. At this point, it seemed that the malcontents satisfied themselves with targeting Bear because they couldn't target Jasper. "Bear's contribution is wisdom," she managed to ground out at last. "What's yours?"

Dicer's eyes flashed with fury, but she knew better than to respond. She choked back her words and slinked away, leaving Jasper alone to deal with the triplets.

The triplets waited for her at the watchtower, a structure the gems built shortly after the coming of the Crystal Gems in order to keep a better eye on the warp pad. Even among the gems, the triplets were peculiar: their gems were set in the same place on their hips, their markings were the same save for one of them having nearly an entire arm marked by red-orange rather than the stripe the other two had, their manners were largely the same, and they refused any attempts to name them. The triplets distrusted anything relating to humans, preferring instead to keep to themselves and other dissatisfied gems.

Jasper thought it was nonsense to isolate oneself from the larger society like that; they were part of the world, and as such had the responsibility to behave appropriately. Behavior like theirs was immature and selfish. Perhaps the large disappointment for her was that they had largely been fine until the Crystal Gems came along and Rose Quartz's precious _freedom_ gave the more discontent gems the notion that they could act out without justifiable repercussions.

"We didn't do anything wrong," one of the triplets whined. Her sisters nodded in support. " _Bear_ knows we're just playing."

Jasper's response was dry and unimpressed with her attempt at placation. " _Playing_ hard enough to leave bruises."

The other triplet attempted explanation, instead. "Maybe we got a little carried away. Bear understands."

The transparent efforts to blame Bear were wearing thin, and Jasper's sneer of disgust was enough to make the triplets blanch. She could _feel_ her gem grow hot with annoyance. " _Enough!_ You've been warned _every damned time._ What was it about the past thousand warnings _did you not get?_ "

The triplets cringed as her voice rose, and for the moment she didn't care if anyone else could hear her. They offered apologies, excuses, and tumbling words that only served to stoke her anger. It was the same damned thing over and over again, and they would go back to their old habits if left unchecked. Her teeth clenched tight in the effort to contain herself, that tic in her cheek jerking from the pressure. "Look, Jasper, it's not _our_ fault if—"

" _ **SHUT IT!**_ "

The triplets drew back, wide-eyed. They slinked further back as she stalked towards them, towered over them, and they were quaking when her helmet formed over her head. Something about the power she seemed to hold over them appealed to some dark fragment inside her. It was a new, intoxicating feeling; she was almost heady from it. Yet, she deflated quickly when one of the triplets burst into tears. The heat in her gem faded as that intoxicating feeling of power over another was swept away in disgust. Was it disgust at them, or at herself?

She didn't want to think about it.

Jasper dissipated the helmet, but still she loomed over them. Her voice was hard and cold when she at last managed to speak. "You are all exiled for the next three hundred years. If you come back any sooner, I will rip your gems out with my bare hands. If I hear that you've been harassing humans, I will rip your gems out. If I hear that you've been harassing corrupted gems, _I will rip your gems out_. _Do you understand?_ "

One of the triplets dared to speak up. "Can we—"

" _ **OUT.**_ "

They scurried away, heading south. She watched, glowering, until they faded from view. Only then did she dismiss the discomfort settling into her gem and allow herself to relax.

.*.

It was night when Twig joined her at the dolomite butte overlooking their Kindergarten. Twig was bundled up in a bison-hide blanket, though she had no more need for it than did Jasper. For several long moments, neither of them spoke. Twig settled on a broken-off boulder of white and patted the one next to her. With the rage burned out of her and with nothing else to do, Jasper grudgingly sat next to her.

"You were loud, little sis," Twig said with a teasing tone in her voice. "I don't think anyone is gonna bother Bear again for a while."

Jasper didn't feel the need to respond immediately. Her arms crossed defensively as she watched the glow of firelight in the great house's windows from across the canyon. Did she really want to get into it with Twig, of all gems? Twig had that _way_ about her that suggested that she knew what was on Jasper's mind. It was unsettling.

Twig, sensing that Jasper needed a little time, continued. "You've been getting angry for no reason lately—"

"I had reason—"

"This time, sure." Twig's eyes were preternaturally sharp, as if she could cut straight into Jasper's gem and lay bare her worst thoughts and inclinations. "I can take your anger, no problem. You don't scare me nearly as much as you think you do. But what happens if you explode on Sage again? Or Citrine? What if you suddenly snap at Bear? She's in a delicate enough state as it is with half the place frustrated with her disability, I don't want to think of what your anger would do to her."

Humiliation shot through Jasper, turning quickly to anger for Twig accusing her of being uncontrollable, and she narrowed her eyes at Twig. "I'll apologize to Bear," she growled through gritted teeth.

"I talked Carnelian into talking to Bear. She'll understand." Curse Twig and her ability to _manage_ her like this, and damn that soothing smile of hers. " _You_ need to deal with whatever's eating you inside. I'll bet it's ennui."

"Great. And do you have a _solution_ for this problem you think I have?" Perhaps her words were sharper than she had wanted, but she felt no need to take them back when Twig felt the need to analyze her like this.

A slow, sly grin expanded on Twig's face. "The suggestion came from Amethyst, but I think it's a great idea. Why don't you take Rose up on that offer for combat training with Pearl?"

"Training with _that_ cornstalk?" Jasper hadn't paid all that much attention to Pearl outside of diplomatic meetings, and she barely remembered the one fight with the Crystal Gems long ago. For the life of her, she couldn't remember what Pearl had done during that fight. "I'd crush her."

"See? I'm sure it won't be _that_ hard." The sparkle of mischief in Twig's eyes betrayed her, and Jasper was immediately wary. Maybe she had mostly ignored the Crystal Gems after the first few encounters, but Twig struck a friendship with Amethyst a while back and everything about Twig's behavior now suggested that she knew a lot more about Pearl's capabilities than she was letting on. "Why don't you give it a try?"

This was starting to reek of a set-up, but far be it for Jasper to turn down a challenge. "Fine. I'll pay them a visit at some point."

What could it hurt? It wasn't like Jasper had anything _important_ to do.

* * *

Cultural notes:  
\- The southern trading center mentioned is Chaco Canyon, which at the time of this chapter (September 1023 CE) is a major cultural center and trade hub.  
\- The ball court is built in the Hohokam style, and I had the ball court at Wupatki National Monument in mind when I wrote it.  
\- Gambling was definitely a thing in Mesoamerica, which the Beta gems had trade access to (the macaw feathers, hematite mirrors, and Dicer's board game are all from Mesoamerica). Also, the date at the beginning is Maya calendar reckoning.


	3. Oil and Water

Ultimately, Jasper didn't really care that much about the Crystal Gems. Rose was an occasional annoyance who treated every mundane thing as something new and exotic, and Jasper learned quickly that Rose demurred and left them alone for whole centuries when she asked anything about the Gem War and why humans were distrustful of gems. Garnet came with Amethyst sometimes, but otherwise left them alone. Pearl mostly came when diplomacy was necessary and there were corrupted gems fleeing across the Great River that marked the boundary between what the Crystal Gems patrolled and the lands which Jasper had declared were under her protection. Amethyst was the most frequent visitor, and she acted more like _them_ than she did the other Crystal Gems. Amethyst was so frequent a visitor that she was welcomed warmly by those who had befriended her, and Carnelian would often join her on the warp back to do whatever it was that Crystal Gems normally did while they were sequestering themselves from humanity.

She might have said she would pay the Crystal Gems a visit, but " _at some point_ " turned out to be a hundred years later, well after a volcanic explosion threw everything into disorder, drew far-ranging people to the south, and instigated a cultural revolution. Jasper had taken to extricating herself from all the petty politics and wandering in the interim, as it got harder and harder to care about small, ultimately meaningless power struggles when there were so many new groups of people roaming around. Dicer still had the intrigue and insinuations made during her games, Sage was still questioning everything she did, and Twig was still there to make her re-examine her decisions. At least the human migrations kept things interesting. For a while.

The final element influencing her decision to see Pearl about training was, simply, the ennui that returned once the ash clouds settled and the new human groups integrated with the locals. At this point, just over forty-five hundred years after their emergence, she wasn't really _needed_ anymore. Aside from the handful of malcontents, the village functioned well. Their human neighbors had high regard for them, and the strange-speaking raiding parties learned quickly that their watchgem was sharper-eyed than them and that fighting them was more of a hassle than it was worth. Those raiding parties who happened upon them after a hunt were welcomed and fed with the meat that gems had no real need for, and sent back to wherever they came from. Other hunters were just as skilled as her. And so on.

Jasper hated feeling useless and having nothing worthwhile to do. She tried to ignore the resentment that grew from that feeling, but it only festered and infected her words when she let her guard down. Driven by frustration, boredom, and disgust at both herself and everything else, she took the warp pad to the Crystal Gems' temple.

She supposed the massive statue must have been impressive once upon a time, but it got boring to look at without the directions and ideas and territory declarations chipped into the desert varnish of sandstone boulders and cliff walls along common trade routes, or the writing carved into stelae that touted some local king's right to rule by divinity and how _special_ he was. There were no figures or writing to look at, frankly. There was just that dull, simply-decorated door with its five-pointed star and the warp pad set before it. Knocking and hammering did nothing, so she watched the waves and waited.

In time, which was a few hours before sunrise, the warp pad shimmered and lit up. The Crystal Gems appeared in that rush of light and air, and none of them looked surprised to see her. A shadow of guilt flickered in Rose's expression just before she plastered on that fake smile of hers.

"Jasper!" The cheeriness in Rose's voice was forced; it wasn't that long ago when Jasper relayed a rebuke to her from the Antelope clan for breaking some young man's heart. "What brings you here?"

As much as she disliked having witnesses when talking about anything personal, she tried not to let the irritation about that or having to _ask_ for anything show. "Training. That offer's still open, right?"

"Oh! Of course," Rose chuckled and glanced down at Pearl. "Would you mind, Pearl?"

"I'll be delighted." Something about the shift in Pearl's bearing suggested that she wasn't, but Jasper was hardly going to bring it up.

Rose beamed sunnily, gratefully, at Pearl. Probably for giving her an out. The more Jasper asked her questions, the less willing Rose was to answer them. Deep down, Jasper suspected that there would come a time when Rose would stop pretending to put up with her questions. "You'll do wonderfully. Have fun!"

Then, as if she wanted to get far away before Jasper asked something uncomfortable again, Rose disappeared into her room. Garnet muttered an excuse about a mission and picked up Amethyst to warp away. She was left alone with Pearl.

It was hardly unusual. She had lost count of how often Pearl had come with an accounting of errant corrupted gems running to the safety of the Great River's western banks, or with some warnings of future events from Garnet. _This_ was new, however, and Jasper wanted to ask a dozen things, starting with; _Why do you let her treat you like that?_

"Rose doesn't like me, does she?" she asked rhetorically, instead. Whatever was going on between Pearl and Rose was none of her business. All she knew was that if she had a romantic partner, _she_ wouldn't be running after someone else for fun.

"You hardly make it easy."

It was probably as much of a confirmation as she was going to get. " _Someone_ has to keep you gems from getting too complacent." And speak up when Rose's weird proclivities for _playing_ with human suitors and sticking her nose into private rituals were likely to get them in trouble with their neighbors. Given that the other Crystal Gems thought only the best of Rose and her own gems were reluctant to bring up the issue, that particular task was Jasper's.

Just as well that a lifetime of putting up with malcontents muttering behind her back had inured her to any doubts about _that_ aspect of her job as leader of the village and smothered any inclinations she may have had towards being worried about what others thought of her choices.

"Yes, well…" Pearl's eyes drifted aside, to some thought she wasn't likely to share with Jasper.

Jasper waited for Pearl's eyes to clear. She just… _got_ like this sometimes, when Jasper accidentally set off a memory of some dark time that Pearl would never talk about. Jasper waited patiently until Pearl could finally find her words again. Then the shadows lifted and Pearl tittered uncomfortably.

"Stars! I'm sorry. We'll go to the Sky Arena and start there."

The warp wasn't long, but she still preferred walking every time. The novelty of warping had worn thin in the first hundred years after the Crystal Gems showed them how to use their pad, at least for her. Staying still while being whisked away was _boring_. At least when she walked, she could feel the changes in the ground beneath her feet.

"How does this thing stay up?" Jasper asked as they stepped off the warp pad. She managed to glance over the side just long enough to get a view of the ground far below. The way the whole thing shifted ever so slightly in the wind suggested that it was held aloft by nothing at all.

"Magic," Pearl said with a smirk. She knew by now how Jasper hated trite, too-simple answers.

Jasper dignified that with a grunt and looked around. This high up, the air was both bitingly cold and strangely warm from the sun. The tiles felt solid, glued in place by something far more enduring than the lime mortar humans used for their masonry. There was a grit to their surfaces that prevented slipping. If that was consistent, then that was one less thing she had to worry about with Pearl's training. She took mental inventory of everything as Pearl led her up the stairs and into the arena itself.

It was crumbling, as all things of great age do, and there were marks of impact damage that weren't so different from the damage their ball court took during particularly rowdy games. The broken rubble left over from the smashing of pillars and statues were a bigger issue—she would have to be careful not to trip over the larger fragments. For the most part, what hadn't already been broken wasn't likely to fall over from a strong gust of wind. She wondered what the carvings on the pillars said, but teaching them how to read Gem writing had never been a priority for the Crystal Gems. Jasper supposed she respected that—she had no inclination to teach Rose how to read the boulders and cliff walls in which humans carved their directions and warnings. At least on her end, she had good reason to protect her neighboring humans from Rose's curiosity.

Finally Pearl stopped and took on that bearing she so loved to take when she was eager to tell someone what to do. Her fingers laced together, and her eyes were wide with anticipation. She evidently _liked_ having students. Just not _Jasper_. After all this time, Jasper was sure that it was because her questions had a way of distressing Rose. For the thousandth time, Jasper wondered what Rose was hiding that made her so uncomfortable with the questions.

"Now then," Pearl said, her voice almost a chirp, "what's the extent of your combat experience?"

"Hunting wild animals, chasing off human raiding parties, and wrestling cheaters who can't win without fusion." Not that it was particularly their fault that she was freakishly big, but it was the spirit of the game that mattered. At least the fusions presented something of a challenge.

Pearl hummed thoughtfully. "And have you experimented with the quartz spin-dash?"

"Somewhat." When it was a new idea, anyway. She hadn't needed it for the wrestling matches, and by now she was skilled enough with her darts and thrower that she could take down an animal before it realized what was going on.

"We'll start there. Try to hit me with your spin-dash. You'll want to start a little further back."

Jasper stepped back, eyes darting around to pick up every little thing of note around her, and considered whether she really wanted to attack Pearl. She liked Pearl well enough, considering that they never agreed on Rose.

Something about her doubts must have shown on her face, for it only made Pearl smile. "Don't worry. You won't hurt me."

Jasper wasn't sure about _that_ , but she resolved to try getting to her anyway. She dropped into the roll, used the friction of the floor tiles to her advantage, and picked up speed as her form shifted into the motions of the spin. The ground sped by quickly, and she was so close, and—

Suddenly, without warning, Pearl was gone. Jasper skidded to a stop, palmed a broken-off bit of stone, and glanced around. Pearl grinned at her from atop one of the statues, one foot not so much dangling off the statue's head as pointing elegantly downwards.

"You know how to stop before you run into anything. Good! We can work with that." Then, as if to show off the fact that Pearl was lighter and quicker, she stepped off the statue's head, shifting her weight to the toe of the dangling foot and landing on its shoulder, and dropped to the floor with barely a spot of dust kicking up.

She would have to change her tactics.

"Let's try again. Watch me during your spin-dash and try to predict where I'll jump next."

The minutes sped by as she dropped back into her spinning ball form and chased Pearl around the arena. When she picked up speed, Pearl saw her and leapt off in another direction, forcing her to make sharp turns and circle around if she couldn't turn fast enough. It was like chasing an antelope, and the way Pearl shifted into the direction she planned on going before she leapt and pranced off somewhere else wasn't much different.

Once Pearl stopped broadcasting her motions, she truly started to shine as an evasive target. She kept Jasper thinking on her feet, something that not even the most canny of prey was able to do for long. It was exhilarating to be so focused on a target she was so close to reaching, and the hours passed quickly. Her ability to switch directions mid-dash actually seemed to _improve_ from the practice.

By the time the sun started drawing low in the sky, Jasper figured that it was time to stop playing. Her eyes never quite adjusted well to the dark.

Pearl flounced to her side and was ready to leap again. Jasper darted towards her as she had so many times during this session, and changed directions to circle back the moment Pearl made the leap. Pearl moved to redirect her own landing, and Jasper spun wide behind her and stopped to lob the rock she kept in her palm for so long. She didn't even have to think to aim anymore.

The rock soared as all her darts did and hit Pearl right between the shoulder blades. None of the force she used with her darts was behind the throw, but still it got Pearl's attention.

Pearl turned, startled, and stared as the rock clattered to a stop on the tiles.

A silence settled over them, sudden and awkward, until Pearl broke it with a chuckle. "Well! Where did you learn to do that?"

"Hunting."

A quick, easy smile spread across Pearl's face and lit up her pale blue eyes, as if she had actually _enjoyed_ prancing around like that. "It's a good start. Have you considered developing a proficiency with other weapons?"

"Haven't needed to." It wasn't that her options were limited. She just didn't get much out of what was available when she already had her darts, helmet, and the sheer size and strength to make both of them deadly.

"Hm." Pearl's expression turned thoughtful as she considered her options. "It would benefit you to learn how to use them."

Jasper had no illusions about any of this. As engaged as the practice kept her, it had a purpose. "It would keep me occupied, you mean."

"Your friends have been expressing…" Pearl paused, and her long, lean hand was doing that vague gesturing she did when she was trying to find the right words. "Concerns."

Her eyes narrowed. If she wasn't inclined to talk to Twig about it, why did anyone think she'd open up to _Pearl_? "Doesn't matter."

"No, it doesn't." The concession shouldn't have been as surprising as it felt. Frankly, Jasper expected more of an attempt to get her to talk. As if any of _them_ had an idea what to do about her lack of direction and what it was doing to her.

Pearl stepped away, her eyes distant and thoughtful. She seemed to be thinking in arguments and counter-arguments, and the moon had visibly moved in the sky before she spoke again. "You could join us."

At first, Jasper wanted to reject the offer then and there. Then she thought on how to respond to the offer. Nothing about the Crystal Gems' tendency to sequester themselves from humanity and hunt stray corrupted gems appealed to her. It seemed repetitive, tiresome, _dull_. But, this was Pearl, and she deserved better than a curt rejection. "And that involves…?"

Pearl turned back to face Jasper, eyes bright with that fervor she only ever seemed to have around Rose. "Following the manifesto of Rose Quartz!"

The way Pearl got when the topic of Rose Quartz came up was always a little disconcerting; for the life of her, Jasper could never quite grasp _why_ Rose deserved that kind of loyalty. When she bothered to ask, the topic was usually talked around with meandering words, if not dismissed outright with the implication that she couldn't possibly understand how important they were to each other. In the interest of maintaining a semblance of diplomacy, she ignored the first question she thought of, ignored the misgivings sprouting up in the back of her mind, and asked; "What manifesto?"

"Oh!" The utter delight in Pearl's expression might have been infectious. "'Fight for life on the planet Earth. Defend all human beings, even the ones you don't understand. Believe in love that is out of anyone's control, and then risk everything for it!'"

A dozen questions came to mind almost immediately, among which was: "Did a child come up with that?"

Wide blue eyes blinked quizzically at her, evidently thrown by being questioned outright. Then Pearl's expression turned wry, as if she knew she shouldn't be surprised by Jasper being inconvenient again. Her lips quirked as she tried not to smile. It was clear that she was thinking through her responses. "Rose is… very idealistic."

 _Idealistic_. Naive, perhaps. She should just leave it at that, but she felt like she owed Pearl an explanation. "I get the first part. It's the love bit that sounds childish. Love fades. Ends badly. People don't build on such poor foundations."

Pearl hummed noncommittally, but she made no move to discourage Jasper's line of questioning. So Jasper plunged on, suddenly very aware that she was talking to an actual alien. "Why ' _risk everything_ ' for a feeling that might be fleeting, or hurt others? Humans don't build their societies around that, they build them around rules that will last long after an affair."

"Have you ever been in love?" Pearl asked after a long moment of strange, uncomfortable silence.

"Don't see how it's relevant." Jasper may have thought about pursuing such feelings in passing. There were options, and she was fond of a few of her own, but she was also responsible for the entire village. She couldn't afford the fall-out if an affair with one of her own gems ended poorly. If she was going to be with anyone at all that way, her only real options were humans.

Pearl's answering smile was fragile, almost sad. Sad for her, maybe. Jasper wanted to roll her eyes. "You wouldn't understand."

"I understand Citrine going through the entire village and hurting anyone expecting commitment from her. I understand Twig's human wives and her dedication to taking care of them and their children for however long they last. I understand Rose's weird _thing_ with treating her human suitors like toys she can discard when she's bored." Jasper was aware, faintly, of the disapproval turning down the corners of Pearl's lips. "Rules exist to protect people from getting hurt by emotional whims. There needs to be a better foundation than ' _love that is out of anyone's control'_."

"Rules are a cage."

The utter conviction in Pearl's voice brought Jasper up short. There wasn't just a disagreement here, there was a gulf of different experiences and worldviews. Jasper had never been offworld, never experienced whatever Pearl had, and she had no idea how to bridge it. Pearl was as much a product of Homeworld as Jasper was of Earth. Should she even bother?

With a grunt, Jasper dismissed the entire idea. She could consider discussing it later, when Pearl didn't look at her like she expected Jasper to be intransigent and disappoint her. For now, Jasper would move on. "What weapons do you want to start with?"

Relief seemed to ease the slope of Pearl's shoulders, like she was just as happy to let it go. "Oh, I think I have a sword that's just your size."

If nothing else, weapons training would keep her busy enough to stop thinking about her uselessness and pass the time.

* * *

The volcano mentioned here is Sunset Crater Volcano, which I had the opportunity to visit a few years ago during a brief job in Flagstaff, Arizona. It erupted around 1085 CE and triggered an influx of migrations to its ashfields because the ash retained water and was good for farming.

Also, I know this is probably a sensitive subject for some fans, but: Jasper is not going to be a Crystal Gem. Her experiences with living around and with humans are much too different to gel well with the CG ideology and tendencies to keep themselves completely separated from humans. Plus, well, her tendency to plow through with inconvenient questions just isn't going to mix well with Rose's secrecy.


End file.
